IP Idea: Unknown Powers

tim-cain system-design game-mechanics replayability mystery powers friday-funday

Abstract

Problem: In most magic, superhero, and supernatural games, powers are fully documented from the start — the player knows exactly what they can do, stripping away all mystery and wonder.

Approach: Tim Cain proposes a system mechanic where the player is assigned a random power at game start, but must discover what it is, what triggers its activation, and under what conditions it works — turning the power itself into a puzzle.

Findings: The mechanic creates strong replayability and preserves the mystique of supernatural abilities, but risks frustrating players who want full customization or whose power/condition combinations end up too niche to be useful.

Key insight: The computer already knows what your power does — there's no reason to tell the player. Making them figure it out turns a character sheet entry into an entire gameplay loop.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jC5a0q2u-k

1. The Problem With Known Powers

Tim Cain observes that games in the magic, superhero, and supernatural genres explain powers in "mundane, excruciating detail" — as if your character was born with a manual. You know you can fly at 60 feet per second, shoot fireballs three times a day for 2d6 damage up to 60 feet, and so on. This strips away the mystique and weirdness that should come with having supernatural abilities.

He acknowledges why tabletop games need this level of specification — the players need to adjudicate the rules. But computer games don't have this constraint. The computer already understands exactly what you have and what it does without ever telling you.

2. The Mechanic: Three Layers of Mystery

The system has three components, each unknown to the player:

2.1. The Power Itself

A random power is assigned at character creation. Examples include:

  • Always dealing maximum damage with any weapon
  • NPCs always dealing maximum damage against you (a drawback)
  • Companions always dealing maximum damage
  • Always succeeding at certain rolls (saving throws, dodge, to-hit)
  • All attacks dealing additional fire damage
  • Damage reflecting back onto attackers
  • Element-specific bonuses (max damage only with fire, etc.)

The key is that these are subtle, systemic effects — not flashy "I throw fireballs" abilities. They manifest through the existing combat system rather than as separate spell-like actions.

2.2. The Trigger Event

The power doesn't activate from the start. Something specific must happen first:

  • The first time you kill something
  • The first time you score a critical hit
  • The first time you go underground
  • The first time you use a particular magic item
  • The first time you put on a helmet

After the triggering event, the power becomes active, and the player begins to notice something is different.

2.3. The Conditions

Even once active, the power may only work under specific circumstances:

  • Only at night
  • Only against evil enemies
  • Only underground
  • Only against certain enemy types

3. Combinatorial Complexity

The real depth comes from combining triggers and conditions. The power might only activate after you first use a magic item while underground, and then only work at night against evil enemies. Both conditions must be true simultaneously.

This combinatorial approach makes it exponentially harder for players to catalog every possibility on a wiki, even if individual powers, triggers, and conditions are documented separately.

4. Difficulty Scaling and the Oracle

Tim suggests several ways to scale the difficulty of the discovery process:

  • Easy mode: No conditions — just the power and its trigger
  • Normal/Hard mode: Full combinations of triggers and conditions
  • An Oracle NPC who can answer questions about your power, its trigger, or its conditions — in exchange for money or quests
  • No Oracle in hard mode — you figure it out entirely on your own
  • An achievement for discovering your power without ever consulting the Oracle

The Oracle's clues can be pre-written per power, per trigger, and per condition, making the content manageable for designers.

5. Pros

  • The power itself becomes a puzzle — it's genuinely mysterious, not a tooltip
  • Strong replayability — every new game has a different power, trigger, and condition set
  • Emergent nonlinearity — your optimal path through the game depends on your power. The "best dungeon to do first" changes if your power doesn't work underground or against undead
  • Walkthrough-resistant — the combinatorial space makes guides far less useful

6. Cons and Risks

  • Wiki problem: With limited powers, triggers, and conditions, players will document everything on forums. Combinatorial complexity mitigates this but doesn't eliminate it
  • Useless powers: If conditions are too narrow or intersections too rare, players end up with effectively no power — "heat beams from his eyes but only within an hour of midnight against enemies wearing pointy hats"
  • No customization: Players who want to control every aspect of their character will be turned off by a fully randomized system, and since it's core to the game mechanics, there's no easy fix
  • Mechanic without a game: Tim explicitly notes this is a system mechanic idea, not a full IP — it needs a setting and story built around it. He presents it as the "last thing first" in his usual IP framework of setting → story → mechanics

7. Context

This is from Tim Cain's "Friday Funday" series where he shares ideas from his idea book. He frames it as a mechanic that could work across multiple genres — magic, superhero, supernatural horror — and hopes it sparks further ideas for things that "really haven't been explored yet in computer RPGs."

8. References